Verisimilitude: Good or Bad?

What is verisimilitude? It can be defined by a dictionary as "the appearance of being true or real"(Online Dictionary Reference).  However, I feel that verisimilitude is just an excuse to compose a really good lie.  For example, in the book The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien creates a captivating war story that appears to be true until the book is labeled as fiction.  What a fib! Should a lie like that be accepted by the reading community? Some might say that verisimilitude is needed in order to evoke emotion from the reader; yet, I believe that emotion can also be obtained by a fictional story as well.  This is trickery! Imagine a setting in which you are fishing, you get an enormous tug on the line, your reel begins to make a ZI'ING sound, your hands are trembling, your arms are hesitating, your legs are shaking, and your teeth are chattering.  Finally, as you bring the beast closer to the dock you realize that it was only a stick. That is what verisimilitude is, an amazing journey ending in a disappointing reality. So, why is lying considered wrong while verisimilitude is considered an art? The world may never know.